The Great Protector
by AnaCFranco
Summary: When Grant finds out that his S.O., the man he always saw as a father, is a traitor, he makes it his responsibility to keep his team safe, after failing to do anything. Now he will do anything he has, to to keep the ones he cares about safe, even if that means working with the enemy.


**A/N:**

Hey everyone, so I decided to start yet another skyeward story and I'm really excited about this one so I hope you all enjoy.

This story is set after the Hydra uprising, but Ward isn't hydra. It's gonna be mostly canon compliant, at least until the end of season two, which means it's gonna have a lot of scenes from the show, but I hope I can still make this story interesting and that people will enjoy it as I've been enjoying playing with the show's canon to write this story and make everything work.

This first chapter is a little short, being more like a prologue of sorts, but the next one will be longer.

Comments and criticism are appreciated, so feel free to leave some.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Marvel's Agents Of Shield.

It's funny how fast things change. Just four hours ago he thought that he had killed the Clairvoyant, that it was all over, and then they found out that Hydra had been inside S.H.I.E.L.D. and that the organization he had always believed in wasn't what he thought it was. And the worst, the man he had always trusted with his life, who saved him, was not only Hydra, but also the real Clairvoyant.

When Coulson had told him and he had seen Garrett being taken away in handcuffs, he didn't want to believe it. Coulson and Skye and everyone tried to comfort him, but he didn't wanna hear it, he needed to be alone to gather his thoughts, so when Coulson told the team to get back to the Bus and assess the damage, he went straight to the bar, pouring himself a drink.

He still found it hard to believe that Garrett had actually been responsible for all that, for all the deaths, for Mike becoming almost a machine, for Raina torturing Coulson, for Skye almost dying. Garrett had hurt all the people he cared about, the people he was meant to protect and he felt responsible for not seeing who Garrett really was sooner, and now he knew, all the phone calls checking up on him, asking about Coulson and the rest of the team, John never really cared, not even for him, and because he had been so clueless people had gotten hurt, his team had gotten hurt and he knew that now he had to make sure that never happened again.

He knew exactly what he had to do.

Getting up from where he had been sitting at the bar, nursing a drink, he passed Fitzsimmons and Skye, who were sitting on the couch, waiting for Coulson to figure out their next move. He assumed May was in the cockpit, where she usually was when she wanted to be alone.

"Ward? Where are you going?" Skye asked, noticing him leaving the Bus, concern in her tone.

"There's something that I need to do," he simply said, turning briefly to look at her, before leaving and going back to the Hub where he knew Coulson and agent Hand were discussing their next move now that S.H.I.E.L.D. had gone down.

"Don't need to remind you how imperative it is that it stays that way," he heard Coulson say when he got to the conference room, where Coulson and Agent Hand were.

"And I'll find agent Garrett the smallest, darkest cell in the Ice box." Agent Hand said.

"I'd like to turn the key on that cell myself, if you don't mind, sir." Ward said, entering the room. "He was my S.O., I feel like I should have known, it was my duty to-"

"No one knew, I didn't know,that's how he beat us, by being a friend." Coulson interrupted him.

"I spent years with that bastard, looked up to him. I want to see him suffer." Ward said, hate filling him.

He hadn't felt that much hate since he was a kid.

"I don't mind the company, and I could always use a man of your skills." Hand said before turning to Coulson. "Pick up the pieces here at the Hub if you can, and only communicate using one of these." She said giving Coulson a burner phone. "You and I may be the highest ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who aren't Hydra or dead, not that that means anything now, so stay in touch, agent Coulson."

"I guess you can call me "Phil." Coulson told her.

"I'll be in touch." Agent Hand said, before nodding for Grant to follow her.

When they got out of the room he saw that Garrett was already being escorted to the jet, agent Hand followed and he went as well, looking back at Coulson and nodding. Garrett had hurt him and everyone else enough, he was gonna make sure that that never happened again.

Soon they were aboard the jet, Garrett sitting next to one of the two agents that had accompanied them, to keep a close look on him. Garrett looking nothing like someone who had just been caught and was about to be locked up for life. In fact, he looked weirdly smug, like he knew something no one else did.

Grant was sitting in front of him, looking at him full of hate, doing everything he could to resist the urge to punch that smug look away from his face.

"Course is locked, ma'am." The second agent told Hand before going to sit down on Garrett's other side.

"Good." She simply replied.

Looking at agent Hand, he saw that she was regarding Garrett with a contemplative look on her face, like she was weighting in her options.

"He's not telling stories now, is he?" She asked him a moment later.

Grant looked at her for a moment, wondering what she was planning on doing, before turning his gaze back to Garrett, not wanting to let him out of his sight in case he tried something.

"You know what I'm thinking, agent Garrett?" She asked him. "I'm thinking that the Ice box at the Fridge is a little too comfortable for you, maybe we should put you a little deeper underground."

Garrett merely glared at her, not even giving an answer, and Grant thought once again how weird it was that the threat had not affected his S.O. the least.

Then, turning to him, she asked:

"What do you think, agent Ward? You shot the wrong Clairvoyant before, care to shoot the right one?"

Grant was caught by surprise at the question. He wanted Garrett to suffer, yes, but he wasn't sure he could kill him. Despite Garrett being Hydra and a traitor, he was still the man who had saved him, who had given him a purpose, a chance at a new life. But then he thought about Skye, laying in a pool of her own blood, he thought about Coulson's screams echoing trough the abandoned city when they had rescued him, how he wasn't the same after that. It was a hard decision to make, but he knew that he had to keep his team safe, to make sure Garrett never had the chance to hurt them again.

Getting up without saying a word, Grant took the gun out of his holster, loaded it, before pointing it at Garrett, finger on the trigger with an emotionless expression on his face.

"Come on kid, we both know you're not gonna do it, you're weak, just like you always were, if it wasn't for me you would be rotting in a cell right now, if you weren't already dead."

"Shut up." Grant told him, voice filled with hate, while he gripped the gun tightly in his hand.

He hated to admit it, but Garrett was right. It wasn't that he thought he owed Garrett something, it had been Garrett's choice to get him out of juvie, he had asked for it, but Grant had still cared for Garrett, seen him like a father, and he couldn't just pull the trigger on the man who had been his only father figure for years, plus killing him would be a mercy, after everything he did, he deserved a lot more than a simple and quick death, he deserved to rot in a cell, to never see the light of day again.

Putting down his gun, Grant turned to Hand and said:

"I told you before that I wanted to see him suffer, and killing isn't the way, he deserves a lot more, he deserves to rot in a cell for the rest of his life, and if kill people who are handcuffed, defenseless, then what makes us better than them?"

Agent Hand nodded and said:

"Suit yourself, I thought you'd want him dead, but if you think that's what's best, we'll proceed to the Fridge."

"I know you couldn't do it." Garrett spoke up with a smug smile on his face before saying "Well, this was fun but I'm getting bored. Now, boys, if you will." leaving Grant confused for a moment, until he heard two gunshots and saw Agent Hand fall two the floor, blood pulling around her.

When he finally reacted and pointed the gun at the agent who had taken the shot, it was already too late, both agents who had been flanking Garrett were already pointing their weapons at him, one of them moving to take Grant's gun, without lowering his own.

"Not him." Garrett said from where he was still seated handcuffed. "He's gonna be of a lot more use to us alive."

One of the agents went to unlock him, and then Garrett got up rubbing hi wrists, standing right in front of Grant.

"I know you're gonna do the right thing, son, and you're gonna help us, you know you have to." He told Grant in an assertive tone.

"I'm not gonna do anything for you, so you might as well kill me right now." Grant said through gritted teeth.

"Do I need to remind you that I was the one who saved your life, who gave you a purpose? You owe me. Now it's time to pay up." Garrett said looking slyly at him, almost as promising that there was no other choice for him.

"I don't owe you anything. And I am not gonna do anything for Hydra. So like I said, you might as well kill me." Grant replied through gritted teeth clenching his fists and resisting urge to throw himself at Garrett.

"I'm not gonna kill you, kid." Garrett said laughing "You know how valuable you'll be to us. But don't worry, we've got time, I'll get you to come around." he said happily patting Grant on the back, before turning to one of the agents and saying:

"You, go reroute the plane, you know where to." He then turned to the other agent saying:

"And you, keep an eye on agent Ward here, I know he's probably already thinking of a way to get out of this situation." He went to sit back down where he was before, in a relaxed position.

Grant merely let the agent push him back into his chair before he was handcuffed, without stopping staring at Garrett.

He didn't know how he was gonna get out of there and get back to his team, but he did know one thing, there was no way he was ever going to work for John Garrett or for Hydra, he would die before betraying his team like that.


End file.
